Blackblade 15.0 - Yeto, Country at War
After coming through the mountains, our intrepid heroes found themselves in Hyogo province, and after a few days further travel arrived in the capital city. Here it was that the party dispersed, with Jack and Shirley departing for the merchant town of Nagaoka where Shirley had contacts as an honorary member of the Shimorou family. Meanwhile, Ridley announced his desperate need to find a brothel, and after being directed to look for the church, he headed off to scratch that itch, taking Yomiel with him. Broken Tusk also took his leave at this time, heading into the nearby countryside to discuss the finer details of crop rotation and diversity, rendering many poor farmers thoroughly confused. The remaining party members, Raito, Vol, Caelan, and Ragoom, elected to visit Raito's friend Kenta Sato, but decided that it would be impolite to show up hungry and unwashed. This naturally necessitated a trip to the bank so Raito could reasses his funds and make a withdrawl. The remainder of the day was spent sampling all of the luxuries at the finest spa in the city whilst their clothing was sent for laundering, followed by a meal at the best vegan resturaunt to be found, courtesy of Vol's sharp eyes. Later that evening, refreshed and reinvigorated, the four approached Hyogo castle where the Sato family resided. After Raito announced his visit to the gate guards at one of the lesser estates, the company patiently awaited the message to be delived to Kenta by the suprised and decidedly uneasy looking guards. During this time, Vol noted that there seemed to be an unusually high concentration of soldiers, both here and in the city. When the messenger returned, he brought with him with three additional guards, as well as Kenta himself, who awaited atop the wall while Raito was questioned at the front gate. Recognizing his friend disguised among the guards, Raito made a point of subtly exposing his presence. With the gig up, and the truth of Raito's identity verified by Kenta's power, the party were led inside the gate and escorted to Kenta's manor. Along the way, Vol made a point of catching a couple of servants and instructing one to take Kirsikka to the stables and look after her, whilst having the other carefully remove the saddlebag containing the drake eggs and bring it along with them. Upon entering the foyer of Kenta's estate, Raito and their host retired for a private talk. Vol again took charge and arranged for guest chambers to be prepared for the rest of the party. Tasked with breaking some pretty heavy and difficult news, Kenta called for sake to brought, and proceeded to waffle for a bit before explaining the current state of affairs in Yeto. Since Raito had left the country, less than six months ago, there had been a major political upheaval. Miyagi Castle had passed to Lord Osamu Miro from his newly-deceased father, Lord Yoshinori Miro. Since then, Miro had cut a swath of destruction through the country, most notably including murdering the Emperor Katsuo Okobe, thereby throwing the country into disarray, plunging the federal army and emperor's court into state of confusion; a general chaos now engulfed Shizuoka City. Compounding the turmoil was the fact that the rightful heir, Hitoshi Okabe was missing, thereby throwing a veil of uncertainty over the legitimacy of Miro's claim to the throne. Among the emperor's forces only the hobgoblins were decisive, accepting the rule of Lord Miro instantaneously. This in itself was troubling, as historically their allegiance was to the throne alone; this eagerness to ally with an as-yet illegitimate emperor was unheard of. Following this sudden coup, Mako Murakami, the eldest son of Lord Murakami and whom Kenta referred to as "The Psycopath", staged a brutal assassination of the Kamun family, in Miro's name. Lord Daichi Kamun, his eldest son Tatsuo, and his court were slain, while his wife and second son, Lady Yumiko and Kanada Kamun, fled to Nara Castle with their remaining loyal forces. With all capable opposition removed, Mako rapidly roused the forces of Hikon and marched them against those of the equally-unprepared Niigata Province. This move decimated both armies, and the Yamada family, Lord Komatsu's regents of Niigata, were swiftly slaughtered. Shortly thereafter, Inoue, the Sato's regent in Ibaraki Castle, defected to aid Lord Miro. So it was that Tottori, ruled by the Murakami family, and Ibaraki, regented by the Inoue family, willingly allied with Miyagi, ruled by Lord Miro. Both Hikon and Niigata Provinces were now also under their control, as well as the capital, Shizuoka. This left only Saitama, ruled by the Yoshidas, Hyogo, under the Sato family, and Nara, ruled by the Komatsus, still standing against Miro's takeover. Though Hyogo and Nara were allied, Saitama stood, as always, alone, creating an even more fragile situation. Faced with the shocking situation as laid out before him, Raito fell to drinking and talking with Kenta, long into the night. Over the course of their conversation, Raito formulated a plan for his next move: travel to Nara province and meet with his friend, Masanori Komatsu to see if he could shed more light on the situation, having more military knowledge as well as direct contact with the Hikon refugees. In the wee hours of the morning, their conversation was interrupted by a disgruntled guard announcing that two strange men were at the gate, claiming to be with Raito. As the man was talking, Ridley slipped into the room, looking decidedly more chipper than when they had parted ways, followed by a rather dazed Yomiel, resulting in an extremely flustered guard. Raito calmly waved them in, simultaneously confirming that they were, indeed, his men. The next morning, Raito filled the rest of the party in on the details of the situation, and it was decided that, while definitely urgent, some time should be taken to recover and resupply after their mountaineering ordeal, rather than plunging headlong into another possibly sticky situation. Therefore, a week was set aside to be spent in Hyogo Castle Town, during which Caelan commissioned the construction of a new set of armor from his drake hide, Raito had Vol, Yomiel and Caelan outfitted in garb befitting their places as his vassals, and Vol finally got to indulge his tattooist ambitions on Raito, Caelan and Yomiel. Furthermore, during this time, Yomiel reveled in the glories of being able to set up his lab and run experiments, Vol attempted to glean magical knowledge from the Hyogo Court Wizard with decidedly lackluster results, and Ridley ferreted about the city in search of relevant information and good times. Finally, while everyone basked in the luxury of actual beds, real food made by cooks, days spent not hiking across mountains, and civilization in general, none did so more deeply and enthusiastically than Lord Kamun. Category:Banishment of the Blackblades